Foto: Helsenæringens Verdi 2020

Helsenæringens verdi 2020

Helsenæringens Verdi 2020

Helsenæringen er en dobbel mulighet for Norge: næringen kan løse mange av våre helse- og omsorgsutfordringer de neste tiårene og samtidig bli en av våre største næringer, med eksport til et globalt marked.

Den norske helsenæringen hadde en samlet omsetningsvekst på 4,7 prosent i 2018. Rapporten dokumenterer at denne veksten særlig var drevet av store selskaper i den norske helseindustrien. Bedriftene i alle bransjene i helsenæringen rapporterer om ytterligere vekst 2019, noe som resulterer i et vekstestimat for næringen som helhet på 6,2 prosent for 2019 – dette er høyere enn næringens gjennomsnittlige årlige vekst for de siste ti årene.

Bedriftene rapporterer samtidig om svært sterke forventninger til treårsperioden fra 2020 til 2022. Bedriftenes egne vekstprognoser for disse årene er imidlertid hentet inn før Koronakrisen utviklet seg til en global krise. Det er av den grunn svært høy usikkerhet knyttet til disse prognosene.

Koronakrisen er en «helsekrise». Dette gjør at krisen påvirker helsenæringen med en langt større variasjon mellom bransjer og segmenter enn for andre næringer. I rapporten redegjøres det både for segmenter i helsenæringen som aldri har opplevd høyere etterspørsel og aktivitet enn nå under Koronakrisen samt for bransjer og segmenter som har tilnærmet stoppet helt opp.

Den norske helsenæringen fremstår som godt forspent for videre vekst også i etterkant av Koronakrisen. Krisen har bidratt til å rette fokus på beredskap og innenlandsk produksjonskapasitet. En trend mot dette er ventet å styrke selskaper og produksjonsland som kan levere kvalitet, profesjonalitet og trygghet for leveranser, også i krisesituasjoner. Dette er en trend som bør kunne gagne Norge og norske helsebedrifter, både produsenter av legemidler eller medisinsk teknologi så vel som leverandører av helsetjenester.

Helsenæringens verdi 2020 dokumenterer at det er særlig er to ting bedriftene etterspør for å sikre videre vekst,

  • Markedstilgang – bedriftene i helsenæringen, både industri- og behandlingsbedriftene, trekker frem tilgang til offentlige anbud og konkurranse på like vilkår som den største flaksehalsen for videre vekst. Det er særlig mindre bedrifter og selskaper med inntekter fra både inn- og utland som opplever tilgangen på offentlige anbud som dårlig.
  • Skaleringskapital – det trekkes frem av et flertall av bedrifter at de savner støtteordninger som er innrettet mot skalering og internasjonalisering

Se lanseringen av Menon-rapporten

Les rapporten Helsenæringens Verdi 2020

Aktørene som står bak Menon-rapporten:

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Richard Godfrey, CEO, BerGenBio - a Norwegian biotech company that has developed a cancer treatment that is now being trialled on COVID-19 patients.

Norwegian cancer drug in COVID 19-programme

Richard Godfrey, CEO BerGenBio

British health authorities are testing six medicines against the coronavirus and bemcentinib from the Norwegian biotech BerGenBio is the first treatment to be tested.

Bemcentinib is an AXL inhibitor that our member BerGenBio has developed to treat cancer, by boosting the patient’s immune system. Now, bemcentinib will be evaluated by the British government as a treatment option for COVID-19 patients.

On Tuesday, the British government launched the ACCORD programme (Accelerating COVID-19 Research & Development platform). It is an accelerated research and development programme for the treatment of COVID-19.

So far, no medicine has been found to treat COVID-19, but the work group behind ACCORD has selected six promising candidates, of which the drug bemcentinib from BerGenBio is the first to be trialled.

The study will include 120 patients, of which 60 are COVID-19 patients currently in hospital and the other 60 are a control group who receive standard treatment. The first data from the clinical testing may be available already in the next few months. If the results are positive, the clinical trial will continue to a larger second stage (phase 3).

The study is financed by the Department of Health and Social Care and UK Research and Innovation.

Bemcentinib is already in clinical trials as a cancer treatment and early testing has shown that the treatment has antiviral effects.

Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented: “We are delighted to be part of this initiative which is a ground-breaking partnership between government, academia and industry.  We are hopeful that bemcentinib can play a significant role in the global effort to find suitable treatment options for COVID-19 patients, which has had such serious implications for so many people and thereby ease pressures on hospital intensive care units, and ultimately treat thousands of patients. We are poised to commence dosing in the coming days and will provide results as soon as is practically possible.”

Read the press release from BerGenBio

Letter from CEO Richard Godfrey on COVID-19 Clinical Trial

In the Norwegian news:

Dr. Richard Stratford and Dr. Trevor Clancy are the founders of NEC OncoImmunity AS, a company that has developed artificial intelligence technologies against cancer, which will now also be used for a SARS-COV-2 vaccine.

Artificial intelligence in the fight against COVID-19

Dr. Richard Stratford and Dr. Trevor Clancy, founders of OncoImmunity

Our member NEC OncoImmunity has adapted their cancer-fighting artificial intelligence technology to combat COVID-19.

Advanced cancer technologies and artificial intelligence may prove to be key in the search for a vaccine against the SARS-COV-2 virus. The Norwegian biotech company NEC OncoImmunity AS (NOI) is now accelerating efforts to create a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This COVID-19 project represents an exciting opportunity for NOI to showcase its AI-driven epitope prediction platform the “NEC Immune Profiler” in the field of infectious disease. Whilst NOI has focused its efforts to-date on the oncology field, especially the design of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines, its AL-platform is equally well suited to designing vaccines to address infectious diseases,” said Dr. Richard Stratford, Chief Executive Officer, at NEC OncoImmunity.

This week, NEC OncoImmunity AS announced analysis results from efforts using AI prediction platforms to design blueprints for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that can drive potent T-cell responses in the majority of the global population.

These AI prediction platforms are based on the AI technology used by NEC and NOI in the development of personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines.

“It is encouraging that our AI and bioinformatics platform can design vaccine blueprints that have the potential to induce a broad T-cell response, that may not only be protective, but also stimulate a long-lived memory immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 and its future mutated versions”, said Dr. Trevor Clancy, Chief Scientific Officer, at NEC OncoImmunity and the lead corresponding author in the paper.

Artificial intelligence against cancer

NEC OncoImmunity is a Norwegian biotech company, founded by Dr. Richard Stratford and Dr. Trevor Clancy in 2014 and the company has been a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster since its early days.

The founders’ vision was to use innovative software solutions for the development of personalized neoantigen vaccines. The machine learning software they have developed can identify neoantigens, which are key to unlocking the immune system and combating cancer.

NEC OncoImmunity developed the technology and grew the company in the Oslo Cancer Cluster ecosystem, making use of the cluster’s advice and support, and networking and partnering opportunities.

Backed by a tech corporation

In 2019, the Japanese multinational tech corporation NEC acquired OncoImmunity AS. NEC had recently launched an artificial intelligence driven drug discovery business and stated that NEC OncoImmunity AS would be integral in developing NEC’s immunotherapy pipeline.

NEC OncoImmunity have been working hard for the last months to adapt their technologies to help in the fight against COVID-19.

“As a company that seeks to enhance the well-being of society, NEC will continue to capitalize on research and development that maximizes the strengths of our AI technology to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In collaboration with companies and institutions around the world, we aim to enable people to live their daily lives with as much safety and security as possible,” said Motoo Nishihara, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NEC.

NEC is now publishing this research to support scientific advancements in the field and is ready to start partnering efforts to pursue the development of an effective vaccine targeting the global population.

 

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Bjørn Klem, general manager, and Janne Nestvold, laboratory manager, are excited to continue developing Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator and its infrastructure for cell therapy research.

Accelerating cell therapies against cancer

Björn Klem and Janne Nestvold celebrate that the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator has been nominated among Europe's 20 best incubators.

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator has received a grant from the City of Oslo, which will be used to develop the infrastructure for cancer cell therapies.

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator has received NOK 300 000 in 2020 from the City of Oslo for a project that will support the development of a type of cancer treatment, known as cell therapies (scroll down to the bottom of this page to read a definition for cell therapy). Different forms of cancer cellular therapies are being explored in the Incubator, including genetically modified immune cells.

Cell therapies have the potential to cure cancer and turn it into a chronic disease. More research is however needed to document the full potential of cell therapies.

Specialised cell laboratory facility

The project involves setting up a specialised facility, which will be used for pre-clinical research and development of cell-based medicinal products.

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator’s laboratories are currently used for the design of therapeutic cells and to assess the effectiveness and safety of these cells in pre-clinical testing.

The funding from the City of Oslo will enable Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator to expand the laboratories with the appropriate infrastructure and equipment. The laboratories will support researchers and companies in their development of new cell-based therapies. The initiative is hopefully a first step to establish production of T cell therapies in Norway as part of building a viable health industry.

Janne Nestvold, laboratory manager at Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, will coordinate the project.

“The specialised facility enables the Incubator to contribute in the development of cancer cell-based therapies in a preclinical setting,” said Janne Nestvold.

Several research groups in the Incubator already focus on the development of cell therapies. Now, they will have access to dedicated spaces with much needed equipment.

Supporting public-private research collaboration

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator is located next to the Norwegian Radium Hospital, one of Europe’s leading cancer hospitals and a part of Oslo University Hospital.

The Incubator’s partnership with Oslo University Hospital is one-of-a-kind in Norway. Hospital research staff work side-by-side with researchers from private companies and exchange experiences in a collaborative setting. They are also connected, through Oslo Cancer Cluster, to a global network of key players in the cancer research field.

Bjørn Klem, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, hopes the Incubator can further assist both hospital research staff and researchers from private companies to bring forward new treatments.

“The support from City of Oslo is much appreciated as it enables us to take this important field of cell therapy forward, by supporting commercialisation of the growing number of start-ups in this area. This will allow companies to grow in Norway and create jobs, supporting the vision of the Oslo Science City initiative,” said Bjørn Klem.

About the RIP funding

The regional innovation programme (RIP) for the Oslo region has funded a total of NOK 25 million for business development and innovation in 2020.

The goal of RIP is to strengthen the Oslo region’s international competitiveness in cluster- and network development, entrepreneurship, supplier development and commercialisation.

This year’s award had a special emphasis on the health sector, marked by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. More than ever, it has become important to support the local innovation clusters and the Norwegian health start-up companies.

 

DEFINITION

CAR T-cell therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient’s T cells (a type of immune system cell) are changed in the laboratory so they more effectively will attack cancer cells. T cells are a specific type of white blood cells taken from a patient’s blood. Then the gene coding for a receptor that binds to a protein on the patient’s cancer cells, is added to the T cell in the laboratory. The receptor is called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and enable the patient immune system to better recognise and fight cancer cells. Large numbers of the CAR T cells are then grown in the laboratory and given to the patient by infusion. CAR T-cell therapy is approved for treatment of some cancer patients (leukaemia or lymfoma) and is studied in the treatment of many other types of cancer with promising effects.
Source: National Cancer Institute

 

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